1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to vehicle control circuits, and more particularly to apparatus for controlling the termination of directional turn signals.
2. Prior Art
With the increased mobility of the world's population due to vehicular travel, it has become more and more evident that advances are necessary to provide for improved vehicle safety features. In particular, the need to provide improved directional signal control apparatus for vehicles in general, and motorcycles specifically, is of prime importance. Although the present invention is applicable to automobiles, boats and like vehicles which employ rotating steering columns which can easily employ directional signal shafts, the present invention will be discussed in terms of its primary application for motor driven cycles which shall be understood to include motorcycles, mopeds, etc. The latter type of vehicles are unique in the sense that there is no full rotation of the steering mechanism to execute a lane change or turn, but to the contrary, such changes in directions are often, if not always, accomplished through the use of weight allocation. The result of the change in weight allocation will cause a deflection of the motor driven cycle from its quiescent vertical orientation with very little movement of the handle bars or other like steering apparatus.
The prior art discloses several rudamentary types of devices which are used to control the duration of the directional signal used on motor driven cycles. The simplest of these devices is merely a manual switch operated by the user to indicate the start and stop of a left or right hand lane change or turn. Another type of device disclosed by the prior art is based on time and distance. The operator of the motor driven cycle initiates a manual switch to start the directional flashers. Detectors which combine input signals based on time and distance will reset the directional signal irrespective of the dynamics of the operation of the motor driven cycle.
The inadequacies of the above devices are obvious. The elementary manual switch is clearly deficient since the operator may totally neglect to reset the switch after he has completed the lane change or turn. With respect to the circuit based on time and distance, since there is no input which is based on the actual dynamics of the cycle, the directional signals can be reset even though the operator has not completed and possibly not even started the lane change or turn.
The present invention substantially resolves the problems which are inherent in those devices disclosed in the prior art. A sensor assembly detects the lateral change in direction of the motor driven cycle and translates same into an electrical signal responsive to same. The output signal from the sensor assembly is integrated to desensitize the present invention to ignore false or unintentional turning movements. The processed signal is used to reset storage media which have been previously set responsive to a manual switching circuit activated by the user to indicate a left or right lane change or turn. When the sensor assembly detects the completion of a lane change or turn, the directional lights, which are flashing in response to the manual operation of the user, are reset without any action by the user and in full response to the turning dynamics of the motor driven cycle.